---
kind: "section"
citation: "46 U.S.C. § 7506"
title: "46"
title_heading: "Shipping"
number: "7506"
heading: "Convention tonnage for licenses, certificates, and documents"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/46/7506"
units:
  - "Subtitle II — Vessels and Seamen"
  - "Part E — Merchant Seamen Licenses, Certificates, and Documents"
  - "Chapter 75 — General Procedures for Licensing, Certification, and Documentation"
---

# §7506. Convention tonnage for licenses, certificates, and documents


Notwithstanding any provision of section [14302(c)](/usc/46/14302.md?p=c) or [14305](/usc/46/14305.md) of this title, the [Secretary](/usc/46/2101.md?p=46) may—

- (1) evaluate the service of an individual who is applying for a [license](/usc/46/12101.md?p=b-2), a [certificate of registry](/usc/46/12101.md?p=b-1), or a merchant mariner’s document by using the tonnage as measured under [chapter 143](/usc/46/chstII/ptJ/ch143.md) of this title for the vessels on which that service was acquired, and
- (2) issue the [license](/usc/46/12101.md?p=b-2), certificate, or document based on that service.

## Source credit

(Added Pub. L. 104–324, title VII, § 745(a), Oct. 19, 1996, 110 Stat. 3942.)